The fate of the 2020 college football season hangs in the balance due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It could only be a matter of time before the Big Ten conference decides whether or not it will play football this fall.
Will college football be played in the fall?
As more college football games are wiped off the 2020 schedule due to the COVID-10 pandemic, the chances of any collegiate sports being played in the fall are more perilous. Now, Rutgers University president Jonathan Holloway has provided a potential timeline for when the Big 10 conference may decide the fate of its football season.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Holloway said conference officials are engaged in ongoing discussions regarding the feasibility of the conference taking part in sports during the pandemic. While a decision hasn’t been made, it might not be long before the fate is known.
“The (conference) council of presidents and chancellors are in intense conversations about this. We will be following the guidance of the conference, and we are certainly keeping a close eye on how things develop with [scheduled re-starts in the NBA and Major League Baseball],” Holloway said, via NJ.com. “More information on that front will be coming out very soon. If I had to guess, within two weeks there will be a final declaration.”
The College Football Playoff Management Committee told Vice President Mike Pence in April that there won’t be college football in the fall unless campuses opened. Notably, Rutgers will conduct most of its classes remotely this fall.
As the COVID-19 pandemic swept through the United States in March, the Ivy League became the first prominent league to cancel its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. Now with the health crisis getting worse, the Ivy League is expected to suspend its fall sports until spring 2021.
Unfortunately, due to the spike in cases of the coronavirus across the country, we could be headed for a similar outcome.
College football’s COVID-19 outbreak
The NCAA’s Division I Council lifted the moratorium on voluntary workouts in March, leading to student-athletes returning to campus the first week of June. Since that time, hundreds of athletes and more than 100 football players have tested positive for COVID-19.
The Kansas Jayhawks (12 players), Texas Tech Red Raiders (23 players), the Texas Longhorns (13 players), Oklahoma Sooners (14 players) and Clemson Tigers (37 players) highlight a growing list of programs with a COVID-19 outbreak.
While conference officials and top athletic directors have expressed hope that college football would be played this fall, the situation has now changed. As a result, momentum is building for delaying the season and it could be a matter of time before the decision is made.